Leo Eloesser (July 29, 1881 – October 4, 1976), a notedthoracic surgeon and volunteer of theLincoln Battalion in theSpanish Civil War, was born inSan Francisco.[1] He spent his undergraduate years at Berkeley and in 1901 went to Germany to study medicine. He became a pioneer in the field of thoracic surgery and joined the faculty of theStanford Medical School in 1912. A surgical procedure known as theEloesser flap is named for him.[2][3][4]
Known for his work among the poor and indigent, Dr. Eloesser served as the physician forTom Mooney, whose trial and imprisonment on charges stemming from a 1916 bombing made him acause célèbre of theAmerican Left. He metDiego Rivera in 1926 and becameFrida Kahlo's lifelong friend and medical adviser.[5] In theSpanish Civil War[6] he saw service with theLincoln Battalion atTeruel and on theEbro front with his own Mobile Surgical Hospital.
At the end ofWorld War II he was inChina with theEighth Route Army under the auspices ofUNICEF. Eloesser wrote a manual for use in Chinese midwifery training courses,Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn: A Manual for Rural Midwives which was published in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.[6] In the 1960s, it influencedIna May Gaskin, author ofSpiritual Midwifery (1977), and others in the U.S. midwifery movement.[7]
Eloesser spent the last 25 years of his life in Mexico with his companion, Joyce Campbell.[6]
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